May Day
by Coffee Craft
Summary: The other ledge begins to loosen, and Drew swallows. He expects the worst. He considers reciting a prayer to Arceus to spare his life. It's not too late to look to spirituality, is it? -CS


**Gotta thank Glory for Sleep for this, otherwise, I probably won't have something to give you guys before I get swamped with college stuff. I tried to get something in earlier, but I was stumped until this happened.**

**It's been a while since I wrote in Drew's point of view. Apologies if my characterization is a little rusty. I've noticed I've been writing a lot of my stories in the present tense...maybe one of these days, I'll try out future tense!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Pokémon, I'd be doing my job. **

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><p>Drew Hayden doesn't always take risks to prove himself, but there are situations where he has to, and this is one of those times. Only if he makes a wrong move, it may cost him his life. This island is the home of the next Orange Island contest and the home of his next and final victory before the Grand Festival...and from here, he has realized he made the wrong decision to take this mandatory challenge two days before the contest.<p>

The challenge is straightforward. Climb the mountain without the aid of his party Pokémon. Seems simple enough, but it is more difficult than it sounds. The natives here do not want trainers to become too dependent on their pokémon during their travels, which is why they brought upon this challenge to a trainer who visits the island, to decide if the trainer is truly worthy of being a trainer in the first place.

He can't help but peer down to see how far he's come along, and he has come far, but sometime during his climb he nearly slipped and then held onto this tiny ledge.

He's never voiced his fear of heights but the truth is he's terrified of them. The great Drew Hayden, and fear? He can't believe he put both those words in a sentence…

_I have to keep going. I have to. I have no choice._

His feet feel for other smaller ledges for them to rest on as his free arm reaches for a higher ledge, and for a moment, he is at ease.

His eyes skim for another ledge, and he catches one, but it appears to be out of his reach. He hisses, but sucks it up, because he has to, and attempts to stretch his other arm toward it. He manages.

He doesn't want to make a false judgment, but he must be getting close. He can feel it.

His arms are going to fall off sometime in the next few minutes, though. He's surprised his knuckles haven't bled. They may eventually. Or they might be already.

He reaches for another ledge, which ends up being a loose stone, and it slips off. He lets it fall to the ground. He hasn't lost his balance, which is a good sign.

Skimming for another ledge to grab onto, he can't find one, and now he's stuck…now what can he do?

He grips onto one of the ledges he's been holding loosens, and his hand slips off it. The ledge is about to slide out of its place and now Drew is REALLY uncertain of what is going to happen to him now. He doesn't know what else he can do, he just needs to find a way to improvise…he always does. Maybe if he can reach for his gear without losing grip on the loose ledge, he has a chance.

"I got to have something," he says to himself, reaching for his travel bag. He winces in pain when he moves his arm the wrong way, but gets over the pain because his concentration remains completely on finding something. It's his ticket up the mountain in one piece.

"Rats…" he says a moment later after rummaging through his things. "I must have not brought it with me. My conscious is not going to let me live this one down if I make it out alive. I bet May's smart enough to remember decent gear."

Now the other ledge begins to loosen, and Drew swallows. He expects the worst.

He considers reciting a prayer to Arceus to spare his life. It's not too late to look to spirituality, is it?

"I am such an idiot for coming here for this stupid contest, and I am an idiot for thinking that I can actually do this without proper equipment," he mutters to himself, as he tries to keep his balance. "I wonder how many deaths this island's taken responsibility for because of this stupid mandatory challenge."

"You're right. You ARE an idiot," a voice from below calls out to him. "And why, yes! Believe it or not, I am smart enough to carry proper gear, because you need it in order to climb a mountain, you know! And to answer your last question, surprisingly few!"

Drew's head snaps toward the direction of the voice.

"_May_?" he spits out.

She just has to see him like _this_.

May comes to his aid in little effort, and he is amazed by her skill. He wonders if that was one of the benefits of traveling with her brother and those two geeks he never liked. She offers him that cheeky smile of hers that he's been fawning over since the time they spent together in the wynaut cave, though that's one of the things he's not willing to admit, because of his fear of rejection.

Jeez. How many fears does he even _have_?

"Need a hand?" she asks, extending her free hand toward him. He eyes it warily, but then looks away.

"Nah, I've got everything under contr—"

His arm slips off the ledge. But May catches him on time.

"Right…" she replies with an incredulous tone. After some struggle, she adjusts their position so that she can carry him safely up the mountain.

"You sure you're okay with carrying me? I'm heavy."

May sighs. "Don't worry about me. You're the one who decided to come up here without proper gear…"

"_May Maple_ is sassing me?"

"You of all people who has a knack of knowing what he's doing twenty-four seven forgot to bring proper gear with him," May snaps back. "You IDIOT!"

"…"

"That's what I thought. Now you had better be thankful. I'm saving your sorry butt."

He can't really argue with her – she's right…for once.

Silence falls upon them for most of the way up, and Drew is the first to break it to both their surprise. He is not the type to really initiate conversations (unless it's to get on May's nerves).

"So…how're you holding up?"

"Shut up, idiot," she can't help but giggle at those words. "I'll take care of you."

Something's telling him that she's never going to stop calling him that after this is over, too.

"Would you still take the challenge if this wasn't mandatory?"

"I _said_ shut up…huh? No, why?"

He smirks. "Figures."

"What does _that _mean?"

"I think I'd still take the challenge if it wasn't mandatory."

May stops climbing up the mountain and meets eyes with him.

"What, why?

His smirk widens. "Because I'm an idiot."

"And that's the truth."

They continue up the mountain at a steady pace, because though she won't admit it, Drew can tell that he's a bit much for her to handle. He has to give her credit for her stamina, though, which leads him to wonder how she had saved him after crashing down that waterfall...May gave all the credit to the wynaut. He wants to mention that time in Mirage Island, but decides against it. He knows how humble she is about that kind of thing; she won't admit that SHE was the one who really saved him.

"Ah, here we are!" She swings her backpack over her head and tosses it onto the solid ground, before pulling her and Drew up onto it.

Drew is still having trouble taking all this in. "Wow. I really owe you one."

"Oh, don't worry about it! It was nothing."

"Come on…who knows what would have happened to me if you hadn't come when you did."

"You know, you're right. Just fork over the Navel Island contest ribbon and we're even."

"…Harley has rubbed off on you, I see."

"Drew, you know I won't stoop that low. I could have just left you down there…"

"Touché."

May lets out a giggle, and he smiles at her. He loves it when she giggles like that. He really wants to touch her…but now is not an appropriate time to think about something like that.

"Now what?" she asks after a moment of silence.

"We go back down, I guess…"

They meet each other's eyes, and then crawl over to the edge of the mountain. They are intimidated by the distance…

"Let's just take a breather," Drew proposes. May nods in agreement.

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><p><strong>Funny, I expected that this would be longer, given the prompt, but I guess it's better off this way. I'm glad it didn't get any longer, too, because this was admittedly difficult.<strong>

**In case anyone's confused, Navel Island is in the Orange Islands, and Ash and that gym leader Danny had to climb up the mountain as one of the gym leader's challenges before he can battle him or something like that. I made it so that all trainers who visit the island take the challenge to work with the one-shot.**

**'Til next time!**


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